USA Today: Coming off a week’s vacation, President Obama deals Monday with new rules on the financial system.

Obama holds a closed-door meeting with financial regulators to discuss the impact of new laws, the White House says, including the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform bill and the Consumer Protection Act.

The guest list includes the Comptroller of the Currency, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and the acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).

Also: The chairs of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (FRB), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the National Credit Union Administration, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

In a rare occurrence, Vice President Joe Biden will join President Barack Obama in Scranton for the last stop on the president’s two-day bus tour promoting affordable higher education.

…. The president is scheduled to appear Friday at Lackawanna College, a school spokeswoman and the White House confirmed Friday. The school will be the last stop on a tour that takes Mr. Obama on Thursday to the University of Buffalo in Buffalo, N.Y., and the State University of New York and Henninger High School in Syracuse. Hours before the Scranton stop, the president will take part in a town hall at Binghamton University.

“At each stop, the president will discuss the importance of ensuring that every American has the opportunity to achieve a quality education by reducing cost and improving the value of higher education for middle-class students and their families,” a White House official said…

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ThinkProgress: How Testicular Cancer Convinced A Former Republican Staffer To Leave His Party

Before he could realize the value of affordable health care, one Republican campaign staffer had to experience what it’s like to be without it.

Clint Murphy, who’s been involved with Republican campaigns since the 1990s, was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2000 when he was 25 years old. Four years and four rounds of chemo treatment later — all of which was covered by insurance — Murphy was in remission. Insurance wasn’t a problem in his subsequent political jobs — he worked on John McCain’s election campaign in 2008 — but when he quit politics in 2010 and entered real estate, he realized just how difficult obtaining insurance with a pre-existing condition could be.

…. That’s why Murphy had this to say to his Republican friends who oppose Obamacare on Facebook last week: “When you say you’re against it, you’re saying that you don’t want people like me to have health insurance.”

President Obama’s weekly addresses tend to be pretty tame, at least as far as political rhetoric goes, but over the weekend his latest weekly message included some fairly pointed language about Republican efforts to sabotage the federal health care system.

Some congressional Republicans, Obama said, are “working hard to confuse people, and making empty promises that they’ll either shut down the health care law, or, if they don’t get their way, they’ll shut down the government…. A lot of Republicans seem to believe that if they can gum up the works and make this law fail, they’ll somehow be sticking it to me. But they’d just be sticking it to you.”

And while the White House pushes against the GOP shutdown threats, far-right activists continue to push in the opposite direction.

Recent political reporting suggests that Republican leaders are in a state of high anxiety, trapped between an angry base that still views Obamacare as the moral equivalent of slavery and the reality that health reform is the law of the land and is going to happen.

But those leaders don’t deserve any sympathy. For one thing, that irrational base is a Frankenstein monster of their own creation. Beyond that, everything I’ve seen indicates that members of the Republican elite still don’t get the basics of health reform — and that this lack of understanding is in the process of turning into a major political liability.

On the unstoppability of Obamacare: We have this system in which Congress passes laws, the president signs them, and then they go into effect. The Affordable Care Act went through this process, and there is no legitimate way for Republicans to stop it.

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed a gun-control measure into law on Sunday that expands background checks to cover all firearms purchases in the state, closing what he said was a loophole that exempted gun sales between private parties.

The new law also requires all gun owners to report any lost or stolen firearms to local police within 72 hours.

“Guns are a plague on too many of our communities,” Quinn, a Democrat, said in a statement. “Making sure guns do not fall into the wrong hands is critical to keeping the people of Illinois safe. This commonsense law will help our law enforcement crack down on crime and make our streets safer.”

Julian Assange, who back when he roamed the earth freely used to do things like show up on the steps of St. Paul’s to protest the wrongs of capitalism, has now apparently placed his faith in the man who is arguably the capitalists’ single biggest lickspittle in Washington, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). In and of itself, this is only mildly interesting. But Assange’s admirers on the left are so seduced by his oppositionalist posture and his desire to stick it to the man (as long as the man is the government of the United States) that they seem willing to follow him off any cliff, maybe even the cliff of voting for Paul in 2016. It’s a jejune politics, and ultimately a politics of leisure. No one whose day-to-day life is materially affected by the question of who is in office has time for such silly games, and therefore, no one who purports to be in solidarity with those people should either.

… these seemingly left-wing anti-establishment types should never be trusted. These are just playtime politics, luxuries for the leisure class. If you want a real left-winger, I say stick with Marx. At least he understood that politics is chiefly about economic relations. Anyone who doesn’t understand that is sending you down blind alleys, knows little about politics to begin with, and should be shunned by anyone who claims to be anywhere on the broad left side of the spectrum.

They carried signs that demanded “Voting Rights,” “Jobs for All” and “Decent Housing.” They protested the vigilante killing of an unarmed black teenager in the South and his killer’s acquittal. They denounced racial profiling in the country’s largest city.

This isn’t 1963 but 2013, when so many of the issues that gave rise to the March on Washington fifty years ago remain unfulfilled or under siege today. That’s why, on August 24, a broad coalition of civil rights organizations, unions, progressive groups and Democratic Party leaders will rally at the Lincoln Memorial and proceed to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial to honor the fiftieth anniversary of the march and dramatize the contemporary fight. (President Obama will participate in a separate event commemorating the official anniversary on August 28.)

The Supreme Court’s decision gutting the Voting Rights Act in late June and the acquittal of George Zimmerman less than three weeks later make this year’s march “exponentially more urgent” with respect to pressuring Congress and arousing the conscience of the nation, says Ben Jealous, president of the NAACP, a co-sponsor of the march.

HF2,
Thank you!
So much to read. I will be here for a while.
What a wonderful, beautiful day in NY! I will not sleep knowing our President will be visiting the State of NY.
Visited a garlic farm(yes, you heard me right) near there this weekend. Beautiful place, but saw some cars with the confederate flag pass us by and a couple of tea party flags in yards. That shit is real, y’all…..
We had a real nice time. The people were so kind that we met on the farm we ate a vegetarian lunch.
I love when our President and Vice President travel outside of the Hill. But there is evil as well as good and I pray for them daily whenever they do their jobs.
They really deserve their pay unlike some others who do absolutely nothing.
We all know who they are.

DF. Hope you have a great year at school. Wanted to tell you my D-I-L, you met is now the Dean of Students at her HS. So proud of her. She has so many ideas she is thinks will help. She will have her hands full this year.

What a scumbag. Turns out he’s also jealous of Pres. Obama. He really is the true characterization of the Napoleon Complex. I love that it burns him that he will never occupy the office Pres. Obama holds. He will never go down in history as an phenomenal leader. He will never be looked upon as a historic figure. It’s despicable that he basically browbeat the NY Legislature to change the charter so that he could use his limitless funds to have access to a third term. He knows he would never win a race for NY Governor and that’s why he won’t run. There is huge income disparity in NY, education is in the pits, he’s made life even more cushy for his 1% pals, and has made life a living hell for Blacks and Latinos. He’s happy with them being stopped and frisked but would be outraged if his own kid was subjected to such humiliating tactics. The very definition of the scum of the earth.

From The Article: I asked Bloomberg if he could imagine joining the President’s Cabinet. In theory, he said, “it would be fascinating to be Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, jobs like that. Secretary of the Treasury, you want someone who’s a real economist”—and someone “who is maybe less opinionated.” Bloomberg thinks of himself as a team player, as long as it’s his team. It is hard to imagine the endeavor that would sufficiently command Bloomberg’s restless ambition and vanity. He is an outsized character: the biggest plutocrat in a plutocratic capital, a creature of Wall Street who, flagrantly and legally, tapped his limitless bank account to become, and remain, mayor. Seeking a third term required him to ask the City Council to amend the City Charter on his behalf, about which he is unapologetic. “I can tell you that when it came to a third term the City Council majority thought it was good to change” the charter, he said. “And the public elected me.”

In private and in his natural social milieu, in the town houses and penthouses of the Upper East Side and Central Park West, Bloomberg is voluble, self-absorbed, brilliant. At dinner parties, while drinking copious amounts of wine, he makes plain his contempt for the New York Times, the media property friends say that he covets but most likely cannot own, and for President Obama, who occupies the office he craves but will never achieve.

“I am sympathetic that he has a Congress that is partisan,” Bloomberg told me, speaking of Obama. “In the past two hundred and thirty-five years, we’ve probably had lots of partisan Congresses. His job is to try to bring the parties together. And when he works at it he has actually done some pretty good things.” But he faults Obama for failing to invite members of Congress to join him on his regular rounds of golf, for instance, and for delegating to Congress the drafting of important regulatory legislation, such as the Dodd-Frank bill and the health-care law. “His job is to lead,” Bloomberg said. “He is the Chief Executive. It’s a separate but not an equal branch of government.”

I hope New Yorkers do what’s in the best interest for everyone (which would be them, their neighbors, the community) and that’s looking to be Bill DeBlasio. From what I’ve seen, he seems to be the best Democratic candidate in the field. Wiener won’t give anyone a clear answer on where he stands regarding Stop and Frisk, and when he was in congress, he was all hot air and no substance. Quinn has walked hand-in-hand with Bloomberg and seems to be a proponent of Stop and Frisk and other Bloombergesque policies. It’s going to be interesting to watch the outcome of the race.

If Bloomberg does not know that the three branches of government are co-equal then he does not deserve to hold the highest office in the land. We had the closest thing to a dictator with GBW and I don’t think the American people want that ever again especially someone who feels he can buy his way into a third term.

Scumbag is not enough to describe that “little short man.” He is so full of shit. Believe me when I tell you that most people I know cannot wait for his little Willie Wonka ass to leave town. He thinks he can say stupid shit because he is rich, Jewish and wants to be like Koch when he grows up.
I was not a great fan of his either. I dislike bullies in any shape, form or fashion. When they have no morals or core substance, they make callous jokesat everyone else’s expense, I.e. that “big loud mouth” Governor in N.J.
They are all jealous of President Obama because, yes, he is different, he is Black and because he cares. Their money and power will not allow that to happen for them. They give because they can and are privileged not because they care. There is a difference.

They just don’t get it and never will. Their blood money cannot and will not save them. That “little short man” in NY is beyond money.
He seeks power and that is a very dangerously to be in times such as this. He and that fool Giuliani will never be anything more than what they are…..rich power seeking bullies!

This post from The People’s View is so spot on. And I particularly liked this paragraph – where Spandan directly confronts the MSM shills posing as “liberals” (Yes Hayes and Maddow – we’re looking at you too), letting them know in no uncertain terms that we’re on to their charade:

// Let me be clear: if all the self-proclaimed representatives of the loud Left in this country are going to be good for is to continue to be Assange and Greenwald’s bitch (yeah, this language is warranted), then frankly, their usefulness in America is at an end. We do not need more mouthpieces for far-Right, racist, mysogynistic, anti-government propaganda masquerading as liberals. If that’s what you want to do, go join the Republican party, or for that matter, go join the Libertarians. //

HF2, I agree with you. It is so great to see someone expose these hypocrites for who they are.
This presidency has done so much to uncover who and what people really stand for. They say one thing and believe in something totally opposite. It is all coming out one way or another. And our President just keeps on moving FOWARD. This is leadership. He stays focus, aims high and sees the whole picture.
I honestly could not tell the difference between the far-right and the far-left. Now, thanks to this post, it helps to confirm what I felt all along. They are the same. And to think a Rhodes scholar fell for that BS……..

The post also made mention in one of the post in the reply section that Ed Schultz used to be a Repub. I was not aware of that one or maybe I missed that along the way. I am sure there are others, but why should what they say or think surprise us.
I was told early as a child.
“When someone shows you who they are, believe them.”

All those NSA /”big government” “civil liberties” poutragers who are ignoring Bloomberg’s OUTRAGEOUS policies that actually impact REAL people, and not hypothetical phone numbers, should be confronted with their selective outrage and hypocrisy.

Let’s see how much outrage MSNBC expresses over Bloomberg’s trying to appeal the Stop & Frisk ruling.

Good morning Chips.
The new DeBlasio ad is out and it is another hit.
Bill and his wife Chirlane are shown at the breakfast table with Dante and they are discussing the Stop and Frisk “talk” that happens in their home. De Blasio is the Un-Bloomberg. It will be a good thing for our city NYC and our country if Bill De Blasio is or next Mayor.
I e-mailed the ad to BWD in hopes she would share it as widely as possible.

holy mackeral I’m three posts back and I finally look at the time stamp! sigh…. There was a great post by Spandan calling out the “loud left” as he calls them. And I’d like to see if it can get any traction. It’s really good.

Professional Left's Professional Pimp Julian Assange Comes Out as Far Right Extremist | The People's View: http://t.co/2Hv1HwOURn

I guess that after all the years of vilification it was predictable that Republican leaders would still fail to understand the principles behind health reform and that this would hamper their ability to craft an effective political response as the reform’s implementation draws near. But their rudest shock is yet to come. You see, this thing isn’t going to be the often-predicted “train wreck.” On the contrary, it’s going to work.

Oh, there will be problems, especially in states where Republican governors and legislators are doing all they can to sabotage the implementation. But the basic thrust of Obamacare is, as I’ve just explained, coherent and even fairly simple. Moreover, all the early indications are that the law will, in fact, give millions of Americans who currently lack access to health insurance the coverage they need, while giving millions more a big break in their health care costs. And because so many people will see clear benefits, health reform will prove irreversible.

This achievement will represent a huge defeat for the conservative agenda of weakening the safety net. And Republicans who deluded their supporters into believing that none of this would happen will probably pay a large personal price. But as I said, they have nobody but themselves to blame.

Once again, I thought I was rising and shining on the last thread, only to find out I was really just chatting early. I need to pay attention to the thread headers. Anyway, so as not to waste my rising/shining message, I’ll just repost it here:

“Up and at ‘em all you O’s!!!! What a great getting up day ’round the old TOD stoop!

I have been totally disconnected from most everything lately. #s 1 and 2, plus the grandkids were all home at the same time at some point during the summer, so I spent my time on the real important stuff. Now, #2 is the only one left for a short while before she leaves as well. It’s amazing to realize how much time and emotion I invested in the daily goings on of all things political. More amazing is that even without my fervent attention, the earth managed to remain on its axis, PBO continues in his presidency, pundits are still huffing and puffing about the same old stuff.

Oh well, being the political junky that I am, I kinda miss throwing house shoes at the TV and having my blood pressure go through the roof. I can’t wait to get back to gnashing and bashing the rwnj, emoprog, and all those crazies……go figure.”

Sundus Shaker Saleh, an Iraqi single mother of three, has not forgotten. The violence and chaos that engulfed Iraq following the U.S.-led invasion of 2003 had tragic consequences for her family and ultimately forced her to flee her homeland for an uncertain future. She has left Iraq, but she is determined to make sure the world hears her story and that someone is held accountable.

Saleh is the lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit targeting six key members of the Bush Administration: George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, and Paul Wolfowitz. In Saleh v. Bush, she alleges that the Iraq War was not conducted in self-defense, did not have the appropriate authorization by the United Nations, and therefore constituted a “crime of aggression” under international law—a designation first set down in the Nuremberg Trials after World War II. The aim of the suit is simple: to achieve justice for Iraqis, and to show that no one, not even the president of the United States, is above the law.

The case was filed on March 13, 2013, and the defendants have all been served notice to appear.

I’m more concerned about how this will impact President Obama more than anything else. Does he go along with International Law; does he provide legal assistance to the Bush Administration? Lawsuits like this rarely if ever happen in a vacuum, President Obama might end up doing something very unpopular with a lot of us here at TOD, and are we ready to accept it? We brag about how pragmatic President Obama is, are we ready to support him if the pragmatic thing is to fight for the Bush Administration?

Much as I would have given anything to see Bush/Cheney charged with conducting an illegal war, it was up there with the most unrealistic demands ever from the left, it was never, ever going to happen. Can you imagine the consequences if the Obama Admin. went after the previous President?

I’d be doubtful this effort will go too far, or even if the Obama admin needs to involve itself? Just as the charges may be, can’t see it coming to anything.

I clicked on his name and saw that I had blocked him a long time ago. He’s disgusting. Pretends to be a Democrat and supporter of Pres. Obama but is no such thing. He is vile, tweets misogynistic crap to women (me included), steals tweets and passes them as his own, verbally abuses everyone when it is pointed out that he cannot steal peoples tweets and then malevolently modify them. Every time I see something about Unite Blue, they are embroiled in one controversy after another. It’s all very eyebrow raising.

There are many individuals (or groups) on Twitter who hide behind various “blue” labels – pretending to be Obama supporters/Democrats/liberals, but are rabidly anti -Obama or anti-Dem.

The fact that there are so many GOPers/Libertarians who feel the need to hide behind a “liberal” label should give everyone pause. If they are so convinced that their policies and the GOP/Libertarians are good for this country, why are they ashamed to be openly associated with them? Why must they pretend to be “Obama supporters” or some such? If Obama is such an incompetent, lazy, unambitious, vacation-taking, drone master, wouldn’t you be proud to openly oppose him?

been at the mechanic almost 2 hours. my brakes have been slow for awhile so I’m finally getting it looked at. Also getting oil change. worse thing is that I don’t have anyone to come and pick me up and bring me back while I wait…ugh!

I’m looking at my car up on the stocks(?) now & I’m trying to use my Jedi mind tricks to get something done quickly.

thankfully I was the 2nd person here and the only other person dropped off their car. several people have come in since.

it’s times like these that I hate being single & having no one to call to pick me up or come with me to drop off the car. funny enough I had friends in DFW who were available to come get me. here in BR I have basically no one

I find it interesting that Snowden is lost and forgotten in Russia – while GG and partner are the news. NSA seems to have dropped from the discussion. Suddenly the rights of people at airports is very very important – next time I get xrayed and/or it takes me 2 hours to get through immigration I’ll remember that.

Sorry about the obsession I have with GG and all this morning. But I am sick and tired of self-righteous people who feel that because THEY believe their actions are justified, they shouldn’t have to suffer any consequences and instead be worshipped by all us peons who don’t know just how wonderful they are.

I’m with you Japa, was just looking at his tweets and the narcissism levels have truly gone through the roof – and now this:

The American journalist who has published stories based on leaked documents from former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden says he’s going to be much more “aggressive” about printing stories now.

That statement from journalist Glenn Greenwald comes after English authorities detained his partner ….Greenwald says he’s going “to write much more aggressively than before, I’m going to publish many more documents than before.” He added: “I’m going to publish many more things about England, as well. I have many documents about the system of espionage of England, and now my focus will be there, too.”

I’ve been sick of Greenwald for a few years. His big moan used to be Guantanamo. I wrote and asked him why he wasn’t as concerned about Americans who are falsely imprisoned and held in solitary right here in the U.S. His response was that it wasn’t as important. My interpretation…it didn’t have any political traction. He’s a hypocritical ass!

Still waiting for gg or the Guardian, to explain why gg’s employer, the Guardian, paid for Miranda’s trip to Berlin. If in fact, Miranda has nothing to do with gg’s work, then why did his employer pay for his partner to go to see Poitras in Berlin? Why no transparency? What was Miranda trafficking that British intel felt was necessary to confiscate? What kind of “journalist” maintains so much secrecy about a story?? Why is the Guardian covering up the details?

It drives me nuts that they report everything Greenwald says as the absolute truth. The BBC online article quotes the guardian verbatim – there is NO investigation by the media any more – he who publishes first – wins the day – everyone copies.

If the documents he was carrying show that Greenwald conspired with Snowden et al to steal classified government documents, Greenwald will be in a whole peck of trouble and the First Amendment won’t protect him. I think that’s why he’s making such loud threatening noises.

A British friend of mine on facebook has been very huffy about the U.S. spying on it’s friends, as if terrorists do not route their communications through friendly countries as well as unfriendly ones. On one hand I think hah! Britain does it to0! (which is obvious, everyone does) and on the other hand Greenwald is trying to BLACKMAIL these governments.

MSNBC is being sleek by moving Ed to the 5PM slot -hoping that it will pacify viewers who have complained about the lineup, but they know fully well that the biggest problem is CHRIS HAYES at 8pm, day after day, spewing garbage Libertarian talking points, but they don’t want to address that problem because they have some corporate sponsors to please first and foremost!!

Why I’m shocked! I thought for sure that GG’s Propaganda Minister Chris Hayes would have locked down Ed’s old time slot. Who would have thought that a Libertarian disguised as a Democrat that engaged nightly in kicking President Obama in the nads wouldn’t go over well with Democrats?

MSNBC is still keeping Hayes in the prime time slot (which should rightfully go to Joy Ann Reid, or Ed or Lawrence).

So this moving of Ed to 5Pm is nothing more than a ploy to fool some viewers into returning to MSNBC and giving them ratings. Chris Hayes is still at 8PM PRIME-TIME slot blasting his Libertarian propaganda….

I was listening to and shocked but not shocked. I wish they would kick out Chris Hayes, I will NEVER watch his show!!! I won’t watch Rachel anymore either. I only watch Lawrence if I watch anyone at night.

It doesn’t matter about Hayes, the fact that MSNBC felt the need to bring Ed back as an antidote to Hayes tells me that they are not happy with him. So now Hayes is in an unwinnable situation, if he goes in the bag further to support GG he’s toast, and if he turns away for GG he’s just another Libertarian engaging in high-minded abstract thinking, sort of like Bernie Sanders with his bullshit populist speech.

But something tells me that Hayes’ position is being paid for by some entity other than viewer ratings. Phil Griffin said as much a few months ago when articles were being written about Hayes’ ratings bombs.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) released his birth certificate amid questions about whether he is eligible to run for president, the Washington Post reports.

Dallas Morning News: “Born in Canada to an American mother, Ted Cruz became an instant U.S. citizen. But under Canadian law, he also became a citizen of that country the moment he was born. Unless the Texas Republican senator formally renounces that citizenship, he will remain a citizen of both countries, legal experts say.”